Brain Matter Stimulation Economics

Bloomberg has a new article about deep transcranial magnetic stimulation. It sounds like they expect this non-invasive brain stimulation technique to be approved within a year.

Sofer said he expects to win the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for the device by the end of the year or the beginning of 2010.

The number of treatment sessions needed will likely be similar to the neurostar transcranial magnetic stimulation device that has already been approved.

For each treatment, Brainsway expects to receive $50, he said.

I'm not quite sure if this is what it will cost per treatment session for a patient. The neurostar TMS treatment costs $200-300 per session, for instance. So this would be quite a reduction in price if true (*This may not be the price per treatment session, just how much brainway actually gets. The actual cost per session may in fact be similar to what a neurostar TMS session costs). Also it appears that the cost of the TMS device will go down in price quite a bit.

Each unit costs the company about $80,000 to produce. Once Brainsway starts mass production, the cost will shrink to $20,000, Sofer said.

I think it would be neat if people could buy their own deep TMS device for their home. I'm not sure how realistic that possibility would be, though. Especially considering some of the possible side effects (seizures being one). Perhaps if these brain stimulation techniques continuously get cheaper and safer that could eventually become a reality.